Rising demand for manufactured goods is swelling profits for
container shippers, boosting the shares of companies such as A.P.
Moller-Maersk A/S and Orient Overseas International Ltd, and encouraging others to sell stock. Adding to the allure is a decline in the fortunes of dry-bulk and tanker operators, which carry grains and oil, as
China’s appetite for commodities wanes and a glut of new ships hurts
charter rates.“The container sector has shown a remarkable rebound after a
difficult 2009 due to the discipline of carriers on the supply side and
the revival of trade growth in 2010,” said Maria Bertzeletou, an analyst at shipbroker Golden Destiny SA in Greece, home to the world’s biggest
shipping fleet by capacity. “The bulk and tanker sectors are in the
doldrums, with freight rates under pressure given too many available
ships and not enough demand to match supply.”The container shipping industry, which transports more than $4
trillion of goods each year, or about 60 percent of the value of
seaborne trade, will grow more than 8 percent in 2011, according to
Maersk, the world’s largest container line. Maersk shares have gained 80 percent in two years.Greek dry-bulk operator Paragon Shipping Inc., which carries
cargoes from the Americas to the Middle East and Asia, diversified into
container shipping in June when it bought two vessels.“We like the container sector,” said Chief Executive Officer
Michael Bodouroglou in an e-mailed response to questions. “As consumers
become active again in the developed economies but also in the emerging
economies, this sector has significant upside potential in the years to
come. If we were to invest in shipping today as a group, we would be
investing in the container-ship sector.”Germany’s TUI AG is planning to sell shares in subsidiary
Hapag-Lloyd AG, the world’s fifth-largest box carrier, this year. Some
closely-held container shipping companies are also preparing for IPOs in the U.S., said Socrates Leptos-Bourgi, Global Shipping and Ports Leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers SA in Athens, who is prohibited from naming
the companies by Securities and Exchange Commission regulations and
customer confidentiality.In the US, “dry-bulk IPOs have lagged container shipping-related
ones substantially and will need to be substantially discounted to get
to market,” said Josef Schuster, the Chicago-based founder of IPOX
Capital Management LLC, which manages $3 billion. “Container shipping
IPOs may be more fully priced.”
CONTAINER
08 March 2011 - 22:47
Container ships boom as dry bulk wanes
Rising demand for manufactured goods is swelling profits for container shippers, boosting the shares of companies such as A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S and Orient Overseas International Ltd, and encouraging others to sell stock.
CONTAINER
08 March 2011 - 22:47
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